Hope is right in front of you

Once again, it happens. Some of us know what it’s like, but most of us don’t. My dad will be leaving for the second time in my lifetime. He is in the United States Naval Reserve. Everybody feels sympathy for me when he leaves, and they say that they have felt the same pain. But have they really? Do they really know what it’s like to have someone close to or on the battlefield? I can’t believe them unless they have felt that pain, and I know. Those sleepless nights, the stressful days, and everything else in between – it’s hard! Most of the time you’re worried to death, but you have to think positive. Hope is such a powerful thing, and you have to keep hoping when you have a deployed family member.

My dad is so good at teaching me how to keep my hopes up, and while he is away, he has to keep his hopes up. Whenever he got the chance to call us, he would always say that everything would be okay. That always helped me to think more on the bright side. What I really hoped for was the day that my dad came home.

When you think about it, hope is more powerful than you realize. Some people hope and hope and hope, and in the end they are satisfied with what happens. Some people don’t hope, and don’t really care about what happens. Those people are very unfortunate. For a reminder, keep your chin up, and always look towards the bright, hopeful horizon.

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Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.